On Your Mark, Get Set, Commence Your Life!

When it comes to the arts, passion should always trump common sense.
--Robert DeNiro at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts

I can see all of you graduating in custom TSOA T-shirts. On the back is printed "Rejection, it isn't personal" and on the front, your motto, your mantra, your battle cry: "Next."
--Robert DeNiro at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts

I'm still learning now that it's about "good and maybe never done," that the joy and work ethic and virtuosity we bring to the particular can impart a singular type of enjoyment to those we give to and of course to ourselves.
--Natalie Portman at Harvard University

I was so oblivious to my own limits that I did things I was woefully unprepared to do, and so the very inexperience that in college had made me feel insecure and made me want to play by others' rules now was making me actually take risks I didn't even realize were risks.
--Natalie Portman at Harvard University

With all these people appealing to you, you're going to have to learn pretty damn quick how to tell the difference between hype and substance.
--Stephen Colbert at Wake Forest University

If there's one thing you need even more, it's your own set of standards.
--Stephen Colbert at Wake Forest University

A sense of proportion is recommended: we can’t all be “first.” (Conversely, it is an optimistic observation to realize: we can’t all be “last.”)
--Joyce Carol Oates at Niagara County Community College

Energy—industry—refusal to be discouraged—a prevailing sense of humor: these are essential in our lives.
--Joyce Carol Oates at Niagara County Community College

For those of you, who don’t want to participate — who don’t want to vote, would you please just shut up, so the rest of us can get things done.
--Bill Nye at Rutgers University

Just think what else is out there, what other physical or biological phenomenon is just waiting to be discovered, or invented, or thought of.
--Bill Nye at Rutgers University

It happened because I worked hard, and I belonged to an institution that was only concerned about my performance and my potential.
--Colin Powell at Rice University

When you drive on the base at Fort Benning the first sign you see is the motto of the infantry: ‘Follow Me’
--Colin Powell at Rice University

You are emblems of the sense of possibility that will define our new age. You can write the code for all of us.
--Eric Schmidt at Virginia Tech

Technology doesn’t work on its own. It’s just a tool. You are the ones who harness its power.
--Eric Schmidt at Virginia Tech

And it was here that President Ronald Reagan called on us to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds.
--Tim Cook at George Washington University

A friend of mine at Apple likes to say the best way to solve a problem is to walk into a room full of Apple engineers and proclaim, “this is impossible.”
--Tim Cook at George Washington University

We use lessons learned in our “other lives” to put together a winning team on the field, but also to have impact off the field.
--Jon Bon Jovi at Rutgers University-Camden

Embracing “we” doesn’t absolve you of the responsibility to lead.
--Jon Bon Jovi at Rutgers University-Camden

Now is the time to consider all the infinite possibilities with introspection, deliberation and thoughtfulness.
--Katie Couric at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

A fulfilling professional life can be found at the intersection of what you love and what you’re good at.
--Katie Couric at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Much of the plot was improvisation and serendipity.
--Cass Sunstein at Penn Law

You are going to have plenty of "I am your father" moments, trust me on that. They are going to cast your whole life's narrative in a new light; there will be losses and gains and revelations.
--Cass Sunstein at Penn Law

So if I must give any of you advice it would be Say Yes. Say Yes, And… and create your own destiny.
--Maya Rudolph at Tulane University

And be nice to jerks because we still don’t know the criteria for getting into heaven yet.
--Maya Rudolph at Tulane University

So first, we have to DEFINE success for ourselves, then we have to put in the work to MAINTAIN it — take our daily tally, tend our garden, keep the things that are important to us in good shape.
--Matthew McConaughey at the University of Houston

So get rid of the excess, the wasted time, decrease your options… and you will have accidentally, almost innocently, put in front of you, what is important to you by process of elimination.
--Matthew McConaughey at the University of Houston

We are diverse, we are entrepreneurial, and we are resilient.
--Madeleine Albright at Tufts University

Today, at this ceremony of cherished memory and shared resolve, let us each embrace the faith that every challenge surmounted by our energy; every problem solved by our wisdom; every soul awakened by our passion; and every barrier to justice brought down by our determination will ennoble our own lives, inspire others, and explode outward the boundaries of what is achievable on this earth.
--Madeleine Albright at Tufts University

Today, I want to urge you to actively seek out the most contentious, polarized, gridlocked places you can find.
--Michelle Obama at Oberlin College

And they also understood that often, the biggest, most dramatic change happens incrementally, little by little, through compromises and adjustments over years and decades.
--Michelle Obama at Oberlin College